Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Here We Go Again

Calls for Tricare Restrictions Sound all too Familiar

CAPT Marshall Hanson, USN (Ret)

While Charles Lane included facts in his March 25 Op-Ed
entitled Tricare the Untouchable, his information is a bit dated.That which was published echoes past Pentagon
press release that have been made over the last three years, which have spawned
dozens of columns nearly identical to Mr. Lane’s, parroting the need to raise
TRICARE fees for military retirees.

For the past three years, the Pentagon has attacked the
level of TRICARE fees paid by TRICARE retirees, with the Department of Defense
(DoD) claiming that these individuals are consuming “10 percent of the
budget.”This press campaign is always a
pre-curser to the President’s budget that will again ask for TRICARE fee
increases once.The
Reserve Officer Association strongly opposes any recommended increases, because
the administration and the Pentagon want military retirees to carry an unjustified
portion of the military healthcare.

Over eleven years of war have caused health care costs to
sky rocket, as the Pentagon cares for an all-volunteer force, their families,
and wounded warriors, as well a military retirees.Because of the demands on military health
facilities, many retirees could no longer be treated on military bases, but
were required by DoD to seek treatment from civilian health professionals.Retirees shouldn’t be the scapegoat for the
$53 billion health program.

Active duty members get free health care, as they
should.Their families don’t pay
co-payments or enrollment fees on medical treatment.Once retired, members who have served honorably
in the past are then expected to pickup a share of their TRICARE costs.DoD leadership complains this is too little.

Military health care costs have gone up for numerous reasons
to include:

Many
new patients who are anxious children because a parent has been away at
war.

The
number of TRICARE beneficiaries has increased to 9.6 million.

Including
increase numbers authorized by Congress to active duty Army and Marine
Corps

Reserve
and Guard members, with over 875,000 mobilizations.Unlike active duty, Reserve Component
members pay a premium for their health care when not deployed.

A
shift from hospitalization and surgery to maintenance prescriptions.

DoD officials really don’t know how their money is being
spent.Former Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates admitted as much, with the Pentagon agreeing to an auditable
financial statement before 2017.Unfortunately, this has led to inconsistency in details of cost.

At a House Armed Services hearing last year Dr. Jonathan Woodson,
assistant secretary of defense for health affairs claimed that the retiree
costs would add $13 billion over the next five years to the defense budget,
causing cuts to active duty end strength by 30,000 to 50,000 more troops. This exaggeration illustrates how badly DoD
covets benefit dollars being spent on retirees.

In 2011, Robert Hale,
then the Pentagon’s Chief Financial officer told Congress that the
administration’s health plan would save at least $3.2 billion between 2012 and
2016.Either military health care costs
are coming down, or the Pentagon has trouble estimating its actual costs.

In a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report it was
found that DoD was over budget by $722 million dollars in Fiscal Year 2010, and
$1.36 billion dollars in FY 2011.

In 2012, the Pentagon asked for another excess of $708
million from Health Care to be reprogrammed to other non-health programs.As Walter Pincus wrote in an 8-7-2012 Washington Post
Article, “one recent reprogramming request would take $708 million that it did
not require this year for private sector health care under the Pentagon’s
Tricare system and use it on other programs.”

Over the last three years, the Pentagon has highlighted
almost a $2.9 billion excess in the military health system, while claiming a
$3.2 billion shortfall.It is obvious
that the Administration and the Pentagon is asking Congress to “tax” by
military retirees through higher TRICARE fees in order to spend health care
dollars.Columnists like Mr. Lane should not issue knew-jerk responses to DoD press releases.

Congress hasn’t been impressed, taking the authority to set
TRICARE fees away from the Pentagon over the last few years.

In what has become an annual battle between advocacy groups
and the Pentagon, Congress acts as a referee who tallies up the score, and
determines the final outcome.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

It is truly unfortunate that we can not trust the validity of the data coming out of the Pentagon. These are the same people into whom we placed our lives when we served in the military. We counted on them to make the best possible decisions with all of the resources at their disposal.

As a retiree who is aware of the current financial situation in our country, I would consider "giving back" to help is get beyond the current crisis, but then that takes me right back to my first thought. My fear is that my sacrifice will be gratefully accepted while other groups and special interests are increased. The rules are not applied to all uniformly. That we can not trust the people putting forth the data to "play fairly". Nor can we trust the media to do the necessary work to verify the validity of the data and story.

Thanks to ROA and those other associations that do the hard work to get the data and story right. Whether if helps or hurts our "special interest" group.